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| Buddhism Buddhists trace the authority of their sacred writings back to the Buddha. |
| Buddhists trace the authority of their sacred writings back to the Buddha. The sacred text in the southern school of Buddhism, called Theravada Buddhism, is the Pali Canon. This is preserved in the language of Pali, and it was written down from oral tradition onto palm leaves at the Fourth Buddhist Council in the first century BCE, in Sri Lanka. It was not printed until the 19th century. The Pali Canon contains three categories, or pitakas, or baskets, which are the Vinaya Pitaka (dealing with rules for monks and nuns); the Sutta Pitaka (discourse, mostly ascribed to the Buddha, but some to disciples); and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (detailed expansion of the philosophy and psychology found in the suttas). Because of these three baskets the Pali Canon is also known as the Tipitaka - Three baskets.
In Mahayana Buddhism, there is a different collection of sacred texts. Most of the texts were originally written in Sanskrit and while there is no Mahayana Canon, some Sutras, like those contained in the Perfection of Wisdom literature (e.g. the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra) and the Lotus Sutra, are considered fundamental to most Mahayana traditions. They emphasise the Mahayana goal of Buddhahood, the path of the bodhisattva that leads to it, compassion and ideas on emptiness. Buddhist traditions vary in their use of scripture: many recite portions of scripture as a devotional practice, either alone or communally. This may consist in the chanting of short verses, such as the Five Precepts, or entire discourses, either in the original language or in translation. The degree of emphasis on scriptural study varies across the traditions. For the denominations within the Japanese Nichiren Shoshu tradition, for example, the core practice is the repeated chanting of the first line of the White Lotus Sutra, translated into Japanese. |
